British and other Version: I love my Love
The Traditional Ballad Index follows. This is not related to Trooper and the Maid. Wanton Lad is a variant of RV. It is however related to "Roving Bachelor."
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Francis James Child, William Walker, Mary Ellen Brown - 2001 - Snippet view
The Wanton Lad
I've been a wanton A wanton a' my life And I am resolved To go and seek a wife X X X X X X X X The first thing that I asked her Wad I convey her hame The answer that she gaed to me I wish to walk my lane The next thing that I asked her Was gin she was a maid An' the answer that she gave to me 1 once was one she said The next thing that I asked her Was she a maid just noo, The answer that she gave to me I'm sure I'm one for you. — t The next thing that I asked her, Was where did she dwell, An' the answer that she gave me Was, atween Heaven and Hell
Cambridge, Massachusetts 17th March, 1891
I Love My Love (I) (As I Cam' Owre Yon High High Hill)
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a pretty girl, asks who her father is, asks where she lives, asks if she would marry. She is not overly enthusiastic. He bids farewell and hopes she will be kinder when he returns. In the chorus, he admits "But I love her yet...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection love floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #18, p. 1, ("As I cam' owre yon heich heich hill") (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 964, "I Love My Love" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord, p. 129, "As I Cam' Owre Yon High High Hill" (1 text)
Roud #5548
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Trooper and Maid" [Child 299] (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wanton Lad
NOTES: So much of this piece is shared with "Seventeen Come Sunday" and "Trooper and Maid" (which themselves cross-fertilize) that it cannot be regarded as an independent song. But this ends with the woman rejecting the man, and also has that interesting chorus: But I love my love, and I love my love, And I love my love most dearly; My whole delight's in her bonnie face, And I long to have her near me." So we split. - RBW
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English
There are about 5 entries in the EFDSS Journals but most are fragmentary. The longest version is in JFSS 3 6v Henry Hills of Sussex 1899.
9v Brader, Lincs in Garners Gay, from 1940s
5v from Braithwell in Yorks coll by Vaughan Williams in 1907.
8v in Richards & Stubbs from Devon 1975
5v from the Copper Family Early to Rise book
7v from Walter Pardon, Norfolk, various sources
Apart from these all the other versions more than 1v are on the VWML website, 10 reasonable length versions in all of that with lots of repetition.
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The Loyal Lover
[ Roud 578 ; Ballad Index dlMC389A ; trad.]
The Loyal Lover is a song from Lucy Broadwood's English County Songs (1893) and from Sabine Baring-Gould's collection of folk songs of Devon and Cornwall, Songs of the West (1913).
Inglis Gundry also included I Love My Love in his book of songs and dances from Cornwall, Canow Kernow (1966) with a “tune noted by E. Quintrell from J. Boaden (who learnt it from Mr Curry of Helston) at Cury Cross Lanes, May 1905 (J.F.S.S. No. 7, p. 93). Words forgotten, but believed by Miss L.E. Broadwood to have been those given here, which come from an old garland in the British Museum.”
Heather Wood sang The Loyal Lover in 1968 on The Young Tradition's last LP, Galleries.
John Goodluck sang The Loyal Lover on his 1974 Traditional Sound album The Suffolk Miracle. The album's liner notes commented:
John sings the man's lib version of this traditional song. It came out rather like a guitar instrumental—with vocal accompaniment.
Marsden Blant & Squire sang The Loyal Lover in 2003 on their CD Trio.
Hannah Sanders sang I'll Weave My Love a Garland on her 2014 EP Fate and 2015 CD Charms Against Sorrow.
The Unthanks sang Mount the Air as the title track of their 2015 album Mount the Air.
Kate Fletcher sang Swallow's Wings on her and Corwen Broch's 2017 CD Fishe or Fowle. They commented in their liner notes:
One of many treasures from A Dorset Book of Folk Songs collected in Dorset between 1905-1908 by H.D.E. Hammond and his brother who toured the country by bicycle and collected over 600 songs. The melody and the first verse are the legacy of Mrs Crawford of New Milton. Verse two comes from a related song called The Loyal Lover which was sung by Anne Roberts of Scobbetor in 1890. Verse three is from The Merry King sung by Mrs Alfred Hunt of Wimbledon, 1905. The wheezing and clunking is the sound of our most ancient pedal harmonium.
See also A Maid in Bedlam which has the same “I love my love” phrase.
Lyrics
Heather Wood sings The Loyal Lover
I'll weave my love a garland, it shall be dress'd so fine
I'll set it round with roses, with lilies, pinks and thyme
And I'll present it to my love when he comes home from sea.
For I love my love, and I love my love, because my love loves me.
I wish I were an arrow that sped into the air
To seek him as a sparrow, and if he were not there
How quickly I'd become a fish to search the raging sea.
For I love my love, and I love my love, because my love loves me.
I would I were a reaper, I'd seek him in the corn,
I would I were a keeper, I'd hunt him with my horn.
I'd blow a blast when found at last beneath the greenwood tree
For I love my love, and I love my love, because my love loves me.
Kate Fletcher sings Swallow's Wings
I'll mount the air on swallow's wings to find my dearest dear,
And if I lose my labour and cannot find him there
I quickly will become a fish to search the roaring seas.
I love my love because i know my lover he loves me.
I would I were a reaper, I'd seek him in the corn,
I would I were a keeper, I'd hunt him with my horn.
I'd blow a blast when found at last beneath the greenwood tree,
I love my love because i know my lover he loves me.
In the middle of the ocean shall grow a myrtle tree.
Its green leaves shall wither, its branches shall die,
Its green leaves shall wither and sink into the sea
If ever I prove false to the lover who loves me.
(repeat first verse)